Life as we Know It
by Surflilu246
Summary: The kids are graduating from highschool & preparing for college lives. That is, until strange things start happening to all the digidestined. Could a new enemy be responsible?
1. This is It

Hey! For anyone who read my other stories, I know i haven't been on in a while, but I AM alive! I hope you like my new story. Just a note though, Everyone from '01 is in the same grade in this fic, except for T.K and Kari. Also, for the story, Mimi never moved to america, so keep that in mind. Thanks.

disclaimer- I don't own Digimon.

Sora looked at herself in her bedroom mirror. She hated the outfit she was wearing, a long navy blue cloak. Yes, it was Graduation day for the Odaiba highschool class of 2006. (Random year). However, graduation for Sora meant college, and college meant leaving her friends behind and starting a new life. She didn't even know what she was going to do yet, where to live, or what to major in. Sora sighed and slapped her hat on her head. "I'm screwed."

Meanwhile, a few blocks down, Tai Kamiya was late. He was hopping on one foot, trying to get his legs into his outfit and get to the other side of the room at the same time. His little sister, Kari, watched amused from the door. "You know Tai, if you didn't procrastanate, maybe you wouldn't be late all the time.

"I don't need this right now..Kari.." Tai struggled to say as he was trying to tie his robe behind his head. He let out a frustrated growl as little pieces of puffy brown hair kept getting caught in the knot, causing him to have to redo it again.

"Here let me help" Kari giggled as she walked across the room and grasped the two ties. She tied them in a bow and gave Tai a pat on the back."I don't think the world is ready for you."

"Yeahh, HA. HA." Tai put his little sister in a headlock and started messing up her hair. "Tai stooooop!" Kari squealed. Even though the Kamiya siblings were pretty much grown up on the outside, on the inside, they were mearly 5 year olds.

Kari escaped Tai's grasp and ran into her room to brush her hair. Thoughts raced through her mind. 'I can't believe my brother's graduating. Who knows what trouble he'll get into in college. He'll starve to death I don't think he's ever cooked a meal before." Kari slipped into a simple pink dress, nothing much, but it was fine to watch her brother graduate in.

Outside the apartment, Matt Ishida sat in his car, waiting for Tai to come outside. He was late, as usual. Maybe he should tell him earlier times, so Tai would be on time, even if he thought he was late. Matt chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny?" T.K, Matt's brother, asked from the passenger seat.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking about..things." The older blonde didn't even want to start reminiscing on all the things Tai and himself had gotten themselves into over the past years. T.K pointed out the car window, "Look, here comes Kari and Tai!"

"Finally!" Matt let his head drop from relief, however, also letting it hit the horn, sending a loud BEEEEEEEEP throughout the parking lot, causing the Kamiya's to jump.

"What was that about?" Tai asked, rubbing his ears. Only then did Matt lift his head off the wheel to respond, "You're late."

Mimi Tachikawa sat in the school parking lot, staring in the rear-view mirror perfecting her lip gloss. She had to look perfect, people were going to look back on the pictures for years, and she wanted everyone to remember her as, well, Mimi! She was almost finished, when all of a sudden, a Silver convertable came speeding into the spot next to her. "EEEEK" Mimi's lipgloss was now spread across her face. "Way to go, moron!" Mini shouted, not even looking to see who was in the car.

"So I'm a moron?" Matt asked, stepping out of his car.

"Ugh. God Matt, that was you?"

"Yep."

"Why were you driving like a maniac?"

"Take one guess."

"Tai was late."

Mimi said it as a statement, rather than a guess. She knew that was the reason. Tai slapped his forehead, and walked ahead of the rest of the group. Not really watching where he was going, Tai soon bumped into a short redhead. "Hey Izzy, whatcha doin'?"

"Nothing much, hey, where's everyone else?"

"Back there." Tai pointed behind him and rolled his eyes.

"Haha, what'd you do now Tai?" Izzy chuckled.

"Me? Why do you think I did something?"

"Well, obviously, whenever you're mad and the rest of the group isn't, it always means you did something, and you never want to admit it because you'r--"

"Izzy."

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking."

Tai moved ahead once again as Matt caught up to Izzy and they started chatting. He was about to go find Joe or Sora, when the loudspeaker came on. "Will all graduating seniors please report to the audotorium."

He waited for the rest of the group, then walked with them. With each step, it started to sink in that he was graduating. He didn't know if he'd be as close to any of these weird kids he'd became friends with anymore. He glanced to his right, and saw all of his friends, except for Sora. Where was she?

A little while later, he was standing in one of two single file lines behind the audotorium stage. He was about to walk out there in front of his family, his friend's family, and the rest of the parents and graduate. In the line next to him, he saw an auburn haired girl run up to the end. Hah, he wasn't the only one late.

He jumped from his line to behind Sora. "Why are you late?" He asked as the line started moving foward.

"None of you're buisness." Sora calmly remarked.

"Procrastinating, we're we?" Tai laughed quietly.

"No Tai, that would be you." Sora smirked.

Tai let out a huff. He was almost going to walk through the doors.

"Well, "Tai said, placing his hand on Sora's shoulder, "This is it."

Sora looked behind her, and placed her opposite hand up on top of his. "This is it."

Hope you liked it so far

Please review so I can write more!


	2. What in the World?

Hey I'm back! Sorry this took so long to get out. I recently had a surgery, so it's giving me a little down time so i can update! Hope you like the second chapter of Life as We Know It. Oh, & remember the last episode of 02? Yeahh, well, pretend that didn't happen either, because I'm switching everyones jobs around and stuff so it fits the story better. Oh and one more thing! I tried to find the names of some Japaneese schools, but I couldn't find many, & had to make some up, so If you know any that would work with the story, please tell me!

disclaimer- I don't own Digimon.

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Tai and Sora quickly withdrew their hands from each others and stepped out, only to be blinded by camera flashes and spot lights. The two lines slowly split to form one huge line across the stage. All the students sat down in their seats as the principal began one of those long and boring speeches. Sora looked over at Tai, maybe two minutes into the speech, only to see his eyelids drooping and his head falling. She quickly elbowed him to get that clumsy boy to wake up. Startled, Tai jolted his head up and quickly fixed his hat, which had now fallen to the back corner of his head. Sora giggled, then returned her attention to the principal as he started reading names off. Time seemed to go so slowly, but eventually he finished the A's, and moved on to the B's, the C's, and finally got to the K's.

"Thank God." Tai murmered to himself after he heard his name called. His foot had fallen asleep, and he needed to get up. "See you in a bit Sora." He whispered as he walked away. The girl watched her best friend walk away. He had grown up so much. Well, at least on the outside. She remembered back to when they were in 5th grade togethor, the year they first got transported to the digital world. She remembered everything they had been through togethor. Sora made herself blush as she thought of the time Andromon threw her across the room, and Tai caught her, and then again when Tai rescued her from Datamon. He promised he wouldn't let her fall down that huge hole, and he kept his promise. However, what made her blush even more was when she remembered what T.K had told her afterward. Tai cried for her. Tai cried because he let Datamon get away with her, and he wasn't brave enough to help her. The truth was, Tai was brave. In the end, it was him who saved her, he was the bravest out of all of them.

'OK OK.' Sora thought to herself. 'Stop remembering things or else your gonna look like your choking or something because you're getting so red.'

"Sora Takenouchi." Sora looked up. Finally, her name was called. She stood, walked over to the podium and took her degree from the principals hands. People she knew in the audience clapped for her as she walked on the other side of the stage, and took a seat. She tried to find Tai, who was most likely asleep again, since Sore wasn't their to wake him up.

'Well, at least this won't take much longer.' Sora thought to herself. They were already on the V's, and there weren't many letters left to go through.

A little while later, Sora thought she had dozed off herself. All of the students had stood up and began walking off the stage, towards the crowd. Sora jumped, trying to see over everyones heads.

"MOM!" she shouted, hopeing that her mother would hear her over all the screaming people. "This is ridiculous!" Giving up on trying to get the womans attention, Sora simply pushed through everyone. The air in the audotorium was getting hot and muggy from all the people talking and running around. Breathing heavily, the girl finally reached her waiting mother.

"Sora! I'm so proud of you dear!" She embraced her daughter in a warm hug, and togethor, they walked outside.

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Mimi Tachikawa collapsed on the couch. What a long, tiring day it had been. She glanced at her new diploma hanging on the wall, as it slowly sunk in. She would be leaving for Tokyo to become a fashion designer. She'd be leaving her friends, her family, and her old life behind to hopefully make it in the real world.

"Erggggg." Mimi sat up. "I'm not ready for this. I wish things were like they used to be. I already miss the carefree days of highschool already, and hanging out with all my friends... My friends! I have to keep in touch with all of them! Especially since I'm going so far away." Mimi suddenly felt unsure about her decision to go to Tokyo. What if she didn't like it there? She couldn't just come home. She'd worked throughout highschool to get an internship there, and she couldn't just back out of it.

The girl scratched her head. "I wonder if anyone else is going through this."

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"AGH!" Matt chucked his pillow at the wall. "I can't believe I didn't get accepted!" The outraged rock-star stomped over to his desk and crumpled the piece of paper on it. "Yeah, well, who needs your stinkin' college!" Matt stuffed the paper into his over-flowing trash can and collapsed on his bed. What was he going to do now? The Kyoto College for the Arts (Crummy name, right? This would be one of the college names i had to make up, lol. Oh, and Music is classified under "the arts" right? I don't know lets just pretend it is D) had rejected him! He was going to go to college there so he'd be able to play in his band and actually be able to go to college at the same time. Now what was he going to do? There weren't many other music-based colleges nearby. Matt smirked for a second and turned around to face his computer. "That's it! The internet has the answer to everything!"

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Izzy Izumi was probably the least worried of all the digi-destined. He was going to possibly the best college in all of Japan! Well, that wasn't a suprise once he told all of his friends. Everyone kinda expected that Izzy would get into a good college. After all, he was Izzy. Izzy was like Superman, he could do anything! Well, anything computer-related, that is. The red haired boy turned on his old pineapple laptop.

"Ouch!" Izzy jumped back as he got shocked. "Stupid outlet." He complained as he rubbed his sore finger. "Great, a scar." Indeed, Izzy had gotten a little white scare down the side of his finger from the shock. "Ergggg."

Izzy turned back to his computer. He was going through a bunch of his old emails, you know, just for laughs. He still had a bunch of old emails from Gennai, and from his friends when the digi-world wasn't in peace. Izzy was able to calmly look back at them now, since the digi-world was safe, at last. He took a sip of the drink he was holding, and decided to take a look at the rest of the old things on his computer. He pulled open a map of the digital world and stared at it. There were little red dots across it, indicating the locations of the kid's digital partners. However, Izzy raised an eyebrow. Something wasn't quite right. All of the digimon were spread out, like they normally were, keeping watch across the digital world, even thought there really wasn't a reason to anymore. What made it weird though, was that all of the red dots were headed towards the middle of the island.

'Hmm.' Izzy pondered to himself. 'I wonder what's there.' His thoughts were soon interupted by the telephone ringing.

"Hello, Izumi residence."

"Izzy? It's Tai."

"Oh, hey Tai, whats up?"

"Uh, nothing really, I was just wondering, I'm trying to get everyone togethor before people start leaving. Do you think you could make it to my house and hang out with everyone one last time?

The words **one last time** hit Izzy as if he had just been hit by a truck. He was so caught up in getting ready for college, he hadn't put much thought into seeing his friends. This would be the one last time that...that everyone would be togethor. Izzy let a drop of sweat drip down his face and melt into his shirt before he picked up the phone and spoke into it.

"S..sure Tai. I'll deffinitly be there."

"Ok, awesome! Be here tomorrow, k? Sometime around 6 would be good, is that ok with you?"

"Yeah Tai, it's fine."

"OK, see ya then Izzy."

"See ya..." Izzy put the reciever down. "What the!" Izzy glanced down at his finger that got shocked moments ago. Izzy ran his opposite hand across his finger multiple times, as if he was trying to rub off his own skin. "It's... it's gone.." The white scar across Izzy's hand mysteriously... dissapeared.

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Down the block from Izzy's house, Kari Kamiya was getting ready for bed. It had been a long day for her, but even longer for the older kids. Tai was already collapsed on the couch. Kari didn't understand why he was so tired though, he slept through most of the ceremony. Kari giggled to herself. He looked so, well, so much like himself up on stage, his head back. She could hear him snoring all the way out in the audience. It was a wonder that the Principal didn't hear him. The girl slipped out of her outfit, and into some PJ's. As she started to brush her teeth, she heard her poor stomache growling.

"Hmmm, a midnight snack would really hit the spot." Kari tiptoed back out into the kitchen so she wouldn't wake her brother. She rummaged through her cabinent and managed to pull out some chips. Kari sat down at the table, trying to keep herself awake as she ate. She took one look at her brother, and couldn't help but laughing again. His head was on the floor, and his feet were over the backrest. How the heck did Tai manage to sleep in such a position? Kari put the chips away and stumbled into the bathroom to rebrush her teeth. However, when she got in there, all she could do was gasp. She was back in her dress!

"What the... how in the world? Maybe you're just tired Kari, yeah, that's it." The girl rubbed her eyes over and over again, just to make sure she was awake, but when her eyes regained focus, she was still in her dress!

"Maybe.. maybe you didn't get changed, maybe you j..just thought you did, Kari." She turned off the bathroom light, and went back into her bedroom to change once again. "It had to be your imagination,Kari."

The brunette girl slipped under her covers and tried to get to sleep, shoving the incident to the back of her mind. But really, what just happened?

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Meanwhile, something in the digital world, something that no one had seen or fought before, was planning something.

"This is it! Finally, it is finished! Prepare, digidestined, to fight the battle of cough **for** your lives!

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Well, I hope you liked the second chapter! More will be up soon! Please review! Thanks

Surflilu246.


	3. Crash!

Life as We Know it 3

Matt was awoken by the buzzing alarm on his desk.

"What the.." Matt picked his head up off his keyboard, and looked at the computer screen. On it, was a college application form. "Ugh."Matt grunted, still too tired to use real words. He lazily hit the send button, and watched as another screen popped up. 'Thank you for applying. Your letter will be sent in the mail within 3 buisness days.'

The blonde boy yawned and let his head crash back down onto his desk. It was only 7:30. He had eleven more hours until he had to be at Tai's. Eleven more hours of sleep.

However, once Matt had shut his eyes, he was awoken once again, this time, by the annoying ring of his cell phone. Without lifting his head, he moved his arm around on the desk, carelessly knocking things over while he looked for his phone.

"Yaaaawnnnnn-ello?"

"Matt? It's T.K. Is this a bad time bro? You sound tired."

Matt finally lifted his face off the keyboard and slapped his forehead with his free hand. "Well, T.K what do you think. It's 7:30 in the morning."

The boy could hear his little brother laughing at the other end of the line. "Oh don't even tell me you called this early on pur-"

"You going to Tai's?" T.K cut his brother off.

"Yeah, in, like, eleven hours. Eleven hours that I could spend sleeping." Matt retorted.

T.K laughed again. 'I wonder how long I can keep Matt on the phone without him falling asleep on me.' "Is everyone else going?"

"T.K, what do you think? You really had to call me if everyone was going? Everyone always goes." Matt was starting to get annoyed. T.K was making him stay up on purpose, wasn't he? The younger boy could tell his brother was getting increaslingly angrier, so he decided to let him get some peace and quiet. "Well, I guess I'll see you at Tai's then."

Matt sighed with relief. He hung up the phone before T.K could even say 'Bye'.

Well, the older blonde boy wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon thanks to yaaaaaaawwwnnnnnn**tk**. Matt dropped the phone back onto the desk and stood up. He deffinitly did not get enough sleep. His eyes had humungous bags under them, and when he walked into his bathroom, he hit numerous walls on the way. Matt leaned over on the counter and sleepily glanced into the mirror. His now long blonde hair was knotted & looked like a throw rug. Matt once again closed his eyes and felt his way along the counter for his bottle of hairgel. Once he found it, he put a heaping amount in his hand and with his eyes still closed, slapped it on his head. However, once the cold gel hit his head, Matt's eyes shot open. "Awww maann thats coooold"

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Later that day, at Tai's house, everyone was having a great time, laughing and talking and thinking about old times. It seemed to have slipped everybody's mind that some of the kids would be leaving later that night. Everyone was shouting over each other, saying "Remember that time?" and "That was so much fun!"

"What's that horrible smell?" Mimi asked, sticking her nose up in the air.

"What smell, Mimi?" Tai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It smells like...smells like..fish." The girl scrunched her face up apon her realization.

"Fish...what fi-- AHH! THAT'S DINNER!" Tai jumped up from his spot on the floor and ran into the kitchen, grabbing the wall on his way around the corner. Mimi smiled to herself. 'I'm gonna miss Tai's..erm.. moments.'

Across the room, Joe was thinking the exact same thing. Normally, him being Joe and all, he would have been in their helping Tai extinguish the fire that was probably burning down his kitchen, but instead Joe just kept leaning against the wall and listening to the others talk about the good old days.

Eventually, Tai ran out of the kitchen, holding a blackened... a blackened... no one could tell what it was any more. "Sorry it's late guys, who want's the first piece!"

No one moved. Mimi looked at him, her face turning a little green, Kari was trying not to laugh, and Matt purposly coughed, making Tai glare at him for a second. Sora was the first to speak up. "I'm. I'm sure it's still good.. Tai."

The boy's face lit up! "So you'll try some?"

Sora instantly regretted trying to be nice. "Well, uh, Tai, I don't really have an appetitte, I had a huge erm..breakfast... today."

Matt nudged Sora with his elbow. "Come on Sora, try... **that.**" He crinkled his nose as he pointed to the mystery dish. "You're the one who said it looked good."

"Uh... Well..." The girl couldn't think of any more excuses.

Now Davis spoke up. (Haha finally, one of the 02 DD is talking! ) "Oh come on Sora, It can't actually kill ya."

"I don't know Davis," Matt smirked and passed a piece of **it** to Sora, "Come on, I dare ya."

"Ergg..." Sora slowly moved the chunk of whatever to her mouth, while the others tried hard not to crack up. The girl ripped the tiniest piece off with her teeth, and slowly chewed. For the first couple seconds, Tai seemed relieved at Sora's face. It didn't seem like it was killing her.. yet. But then came the worst part of a bad meal... the aftertaste. Sora jumped up from her chair, and RAN into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

"Hahaha" Matt laughed. "Way to go Tai." After saying those few words though, Matt realized how much he was going to miss teasing Tai like this. It would be hard to do over the phone. Hmm.

T.K, realizing that after all this, he probably wasn't going to be eating, looked around at the group once more, he took in everything. He really didn't want to leave, but he had to. "Guys, I'm gonna go, I have a huge test tomorrow I gotta be ready for."

"Awww, really T.K?" Mimi replied and pouted, puffing out her lower lip & makeing her eyes look round and watery.

"Yeah, I'm sorry everyone."

"Alright, Bye T.K!" The group shouted out. And with that, the blonde boy walked out of the room, and outside.

The sky that had been bright blue this afternoon had turned to an orangey-pink as the sun began to set. However, once T.K got all the way down the stairs and inside his car, the sky had turned black. He turned his keys, put his foot on the gas, and drove out of the parking lot. As he drove along, he passed many of the buildings where the digidestined had done "historical" things. He passed the radio tower, which was still being rebuilt from the battle with myotismon. He passed the restaurant where Tai had tried despretly to get a cab. T.K chuckled to himself and continued to remember the past. However, the city streets which T.K was driving on turned to a suburban road, which turned to a deserted trail. T.K slowed down the car and looked around. Perhaps he had taken a wrong turn somewhere? That had to be it, he didn't remember any forests in the city. T.K spun the car around, being the only car on the road, and began back down the path.

This trail was starting to freak the boy out. It seemed to go on and on, longer than when he came down it before. Had he made yet another wrong turn? He couldn't have, it was a trail, no intersections or things like that. Lots of trees though, trees & bushes, however most of them looked brown and dead. While T.K was looking around at his surroundings, a deer dashed out into the middle of the path! T.K turned just in time, speeding faster than he should have been.

'Oh thank goodness.' T.K thought as he reached for the break. But wait... he couldn't reach it anymore! 'What... what happened?' T.K looked at his 12 yeard old self in the rearview mirror, but that was the last thing he could see before crashing... head on... into a tree.

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OK! a cliffhanger! Hopefully a good one, lol. So review, & i'll update more soon!

Surflilu246.


	4. Final Goodbyes

Sora stumbled out of the bathroom moments later. "Hey, where'd T.K go?"

"He had to leave" Mimi pouted. "Study for a test, gosh, there's only, like, three days of school left for him!"

"Yeah," Kari replied, "But he's right. There _is_ a huge test that's going to determine what courses we take next year, so I should probably get going too."

"Aw, no!" Mimi whined. "Everyone's leaving, this is the last time we'll all be togethor, and everyone's leaving just because of some stupid test. Why can't we all just stay togethor?"

Everyone looked at their feet, not wanting to look into the eyes of their friends, for fear their own eyes would start welling with tears that threatend to fall down their faces any moment. Mimi was the first to break. She swung her head up, sending tear droplets everywhere. "I'm go-gonna miss you guys so much!" The girl pulled everyone into one gigantic hug, as everyone cracked.

"I'll never forget any of you." Sora managed to say in between sobs.

"Never ever." Izzy repeated.

"I'm sure we'll all meet again." Tai tried to cheer everyone up, but his own words didnt even have an effect on himself.

"Yeah, guys, we'll meet again somehow." Matt even let a tear slide down his face.

Everyone seperated from the big group and began saying individual goodbyes as they headed towards the door.

"Goodbye Izzy! I'll miss you and your stupid computer. I still don't know how to work that thing." Mimi gave a small smile.

"Don't worry Mimi, if we- WHEN we meet again, I'll be sure to, to give you some lessons." Izzy gave a small smile too. They hugged one last time before walking out the door.

"Joe! Man, I'm gonna miss you. Who knows what kind of trouble I'm gonna get into without ol' reliable Joe there to set me straight." Matt chuckled through tears.

"Don't worry Matt, I'm sure you'll do fine. Ol' Reliable Joe can't keep everyone in line anymore." The blue haired boy looked at his feet. Then, both boys left the room, as Mimi and Izzy did moments before, followed by the younger children.

After watching them go, Tai turned to Sora. "I don't know how I'm going to live without you, Sor." Tai pulled her into one of his famous bear hugs.

Sora looked into his big brown eyes. She'd miss staring into them, she'd miss being so close to him. "I'll- i'll miss you too, Tai" Was all Sora could say.

"Sora.."

"Yeah, Tai?"

"You, you know if you ever need me, for anything, I'm here. You'll always find a way to reach me. I know you."

Sora smiled at this. "I know Tai, I'm here for you too. I'll always be here, even if you can't see me."

More tears slid down the boys face and he held her close to him for one more second. He'd miss her voice, the way she walked, the way she looked at him, the way she could always cheer him up simply by smiling at him. Slowly, his hands left her waist, and they stared into each others eyes one last time. It was like they both needed to say something very important to each other, but they just couldn't find the right words.

"Goodbye, Tai." Sora whispered quietly. She spun around, and without looking back, walked out of the Kamiya apartment.

"Goodbye Sora!" Tai shouted so she could hear him from the hallway. But then, his voice turned from loud, to soft, so soft, he could barely make out his own words. "I love you."

The boy stared outside for one last minute before shutting the door and walking over to where his sister stood.

"Why didn't you tell her?" She asked, with a confused look on her face.

"I wanted to." He replied sadly. "I just couldn't get it out in time."

Kari embraced her brother in hug, about the thirtieth hug he'd recieved that night. "Brother, this is like a frustrating movie! Everyone's yelling at the screen 'Tell her you love her!', but you just can't get the words out."

Tai thought about what his "too-smart-for-her-own-good" sister had said before pulling out of her hug. Head held low, feet dragging across the floor, he drifted into his room, and shut the door.

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Joe zipped his suitcase closed and looked around his empty room. The sheets were off his bed, his dresser cleared, drawers empty. Everything was ready for tomorrow when he would leave for medical school. He did a last check through his closet, just to make sure he had everything he needed.

When nothing was discovered, he walked into the living room and collapsed on the couch. Nothing but the news was on. Joe hated the news. They only showed the bad things happenening in the world, none of the good things. Why weren't people interested in the wonderful things occuring around them? Somehow, they found violence entertaining.

"Earlier today, a young boy appearing to be around 12 years old was found laying in a crashed car. Why was a boy this age driving? No one has answers yet, the boy is in critical condition, and no one has yet identified him. He has been taken to the hospital for further treatment. If you have any information on who this child may be, please call 1-800-555-NEWS."

Joe sighed once again. "Nothing new. People these days.." He once again tried to flip through the channels, but it was either news or one of those pointless new reality shows, so he stuck with the news.

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Meanwhile, across town, Matt paced his room. Why hadn't T.K called? He was supposed to call the moment he got home. He knew it really wasn't a big deal, he could have forgotten, been too busy, anything really. It was just the older brother thing. He decided to let it go. T.K got home, as always. Why was he so worried?

'Maybe if I finished packing, that would get my mind off of it.' Matt thought to himself. The boy checked under his un-made bed, just to make sure he'd gotten everything that might be hidden under there. All he could find were a pair of dirty socks and some old guitar magazines. Nothing Matt would really need. The blonde boys mind drifted once again to his little brother. 'Matt,' The boy thought to himself, 'He's home. He always gets home. C'mon, what could have happened? Nothing. And if something did, I would have heard about it by now.' Yeahh.. that thought comforted Matt as he collapsed into his computer chair, and logged into his email. He was suprised to see an email from a college in his inbox. 'French college for the arts? What the... when did I... OH YEAH! This must have been the college I applied too!' Matt nervously clicked on the email.

_To Matt Ishida,_

_We are happy to inform you that you have been excepted into_

_the French college for the Arts. _

Matt read through the rest of the email with a smile on his face. That is, until, he realized where he'd have to go: Paris. Yes, the French Paris. In Europe. How in the world was he going to get there by tomorrow?!

Matt uneasily opened his closed bedroom door. His stressed father was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping down coffee and writing something for his radio station.

"Hey Dad..." Matt murmured, not sure how the upcoming conversation would go.

"Yes son?" Mr. Ishida replied, picking up his coffee mug.

"I need a plane ticket." The blonde boy gulped.

Mr. Ishida looked up from his papers. "I'm sure we can get you one tomorrow, go to bed, you're leaving for Kyoto tomorrow. You've got a big day ahead of you."

"Ha, aha ha. Funny thing you'd mention that, Dad. Uh.." Matt scratched the back of his head, "I didn't really get.. accepted into Kyoto..."

Mr. Ishida's expression didn't change. He wasn't suprised. It wasn't unlike Matt to wait until the last minute to tell him these things. "So, then what's the plane ticket for? I'm sorry you didn't get accepted, but you could always find a different college, one that'd accept you, lots of people start late, infact, even I did."

Matt put on a forced smile. "See, Dad, I found another college, infact, it's in Paris!"

"That's great, son! I'm sure there will be plenty of space on the plane. When does next semester start? 5 months? I'm sure we can get you there on time."

"Aha, Dad. I got... I got accepted for the whole year, you see.. I'm supposed to be there by.. ha... tomorrow..."

Coffe came flying out of the man's mouth! "Son of a gun, Matt! You had to wait until now to tell me?! Do you have any idea how fortunate we'd be if we found ANY spot on a plane for you?! You'll be lucky if you can ride with the luggage! Shit, Matt, get me my laptop!"

Matt raced across the apartment and found the old laptop. He dropped it on the table in front of his dad. The expression on his face wasn't good. His skin was a deep red, his eyes were wide with anger, his breathing heavy with impatience. A dissapointed look spread across his face when he finished his search.

"Matt, like i suspected, there's no flights that could get you there tomorrow. The earliest you could get there is next semister. Go email the college back, see if they'll let you do that. I don't know what else to tell you."

Matt stomped off to his room, angry at his dad, as usual, even though he knew it was his own fault. Hopefully this college would accept him late, if at all anymore.

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Alright, sorry this chapter took over 6 months to get up. Wow. I haven't been on in a REALLY long time. Also sorry, I haven't been to college yet, so I have no idea if you could even ask a college if you could come late, but for the story, lets just pretend, haha. I promise I'll try to get the next chapter up faster, and I'll start working on my other stories more too. Thanks.

**surflilu246**


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